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In bestelling author Susan Isaacs' novel, RED, WHITE AND BLUE, turn-of-the-century
immigrant Herschel Blaustein, a thirty-six-year-old winemaker from Cracow, stands on the
deck of the SS Polonia in full view of the Statue of Liberty and asks Dora Schottland, a
fifteen-year-old from Budapest, to marry him. Secretly pregnant by a "slick piece of
work with blue eyes" who deserted her back home, Dora accepts Herschel's proposal,
despite the fact that the two are basically strangers. They do, however, share a dream and
the belief that, no matter what, tomorrow will be better.
It's this great American optimism that propels Susan Isaacs' entertaining
multigenerational story and ties together the lives of Herschel, Dora, and their
descendants, including their present-day great-great-grandchildren, Charlie Blair and
Lauren Miller.
Charlie Blair and Lauren Miller live worlds apart, unaware of their ancestral link.
Charlie is an FBI agent in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Lauren is a newspaper reporter at the
Jewish News in New York. Charlie, attractive in that cowboy-kind-of-way with blue eyes
"the color of the sky" and an "I've-got-a-secret" smile, is married,
although that marriage is rockier than the Grand Tetons. His wife and daughter have moved
out of the house and live in Colorado Springs so twelve-year-old Morning can train with a
figure skating coach there. Charlie desperately needs some "life in his life"
and so jumps at the chance to go undercover to investigate a local militia group in
Jackson Hole.
Lauren is a fiery redhead who feels she's missing the boat. She has a job she doesn't
like, lives at home with her parents, and hasn't found the right guy yet. She's had a
string of newspaper jobs in small towns, where a passion for minor league baseball --- the
only game in town --- sustained her during lonely times. But even now, back in New York,
Lauren still feels she's in journalism's minor leagues, waiting for her big break. She
seizes the moment when she learns about an anti-Semitic bombing at a Jewish-owned video
store in Wyoming and convinces her boss to send her out west to cover the story.
When Charlie and Lauren meet in Jackson Hole, they have no idea that they are completing a
circle that began on the deck of the Polonia in 1899. At this point, Isaacs picks up the
story of Dora and Herschel again, and we learn more about Charlie and Lauren through the
stories of their ancestors and how they struggled to achieve the great American dream. We
meet Dora and Herschel's two children: Jake, a rogue, who flees New York after stealing
money from his boss, settles in Wyoming, and marries a Shoshone woman, and Ruthie, who
marries an abusive husband, leaves him, and raises daughter Sally on her own in New York.
What follows is a moving and involving story of several generations of likable characters,
who will eventually bring forth Charlie and Lauren. The family, divided into east and
west, provides an interesting look at how this country's immigrants became assimilated
into American life. Their stories are refreshing and realistic, and Isaacs cleverly
injects some truly American images into the lives of her characters. Two of them fight for
their country in World War II, one prospers working at an American flag company, one
waitresses in a New York City diner, another becomes a history teacher. And, then there's
Lauren's preoccupation with baseball, the great all-American pastime.
When Isaacs brings the story back to the present, Laura remembers her father comparing
baseball to life's bigger lessons. "Three strikes, you're out," he'd tell her.
So, on her third day in Wyoming, Laura wastes no time in getting to the heart of her
story. When she meets a member of Wrath, the local militia group suspected in the bombing,
she finds herself oddly attracted to him and his incredible blue eyes. Those blue eyes, of
course, belong to undercover agent Charlie Blair. Suspecting Charlie is not what he seems,
Lauren confronts him, and they soon join forces --- and risk their lives --- to protect
the dreams handed down to them from Dora and Herschel.
In RED, WHITE AND BLUE, Susan Isaacs writes with wonderful humour and creativity. I
enjoyed the multigenerational aspect of the story immensely, although at times had trouble
keeping her multitude of characters straight. I often found myself visualizing their
family tree just to remember who beget whom. Also troublesome --- all baseball
philosophies aside --- was the ease in which Lauren got both hard-nosed militia men and
undercover FBI man Charlie to spill their guts to her way before strike three. Things
seemed to come to her a little too easily sometimes --- or maybe Lauren just stole a few
bases. Regardless, RED, WHITE AND BLUE is a thoroughly enjoyable read that will not only
entertain readers, but remind them of what we all share as Americans.
--- Reviewed by J. M. Higgins
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